After interviewing hundreds of founders and working with dozens of teams to build and grow their startups from scratch, Antler Partner Winnie Khoo shares some insights on her experiences and doles out some advice to aspiring founders.

London
August 10 2020

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Watch the video to get to know the team behind BrightBee - an Antler-backed AdTech startup that continuously explores the best audience to fully optimize social media ads using Machine Learning.

These six Antler-backed companies are now ready to tackle some of society’s toughest challenges through innovations such as revenue-based financing for SaaS startups, autonomous robots that handle meticulous farming tasks and software that maximizes the returns of building sites.

Due to the growing interest in responsible investment and therefore from VCs, the industry will need to become familiar with the concept of ESG. ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance which are a set of criteria used to measure an investment’s sustainability and societal impact.

Here at Antler, we are on a mission to fundamentally improve the world by enabling the world's most exceptional people to build the sector-defining companies of tomorrow. Here is our take on ESG from the VC perspective.

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In this episode, we speak to Helen Wong, a partner at Qiming Venture Partners, about the fascination with social commerce, different cultural mindsets of founders, and the differences in China and Southeast Asia's tech ecosystems. Helen is a veteran in the VC industry, ranked among the top 100 VCs and top 25 female VCs in China in 2018 by Forbes. She has led investments into Akulaku, a new Southeast Asia finance platform, and Jingling Group, a Chinese social E-commerce platform, and was also involved in the investment into Alibaba.  

Marco Financial, "the first tech-enabled financing platform built for small and medium-sized Latin American exporters," announced in TechCrunch that it has secured $26M in funding and credit that will enable the company to address the $1.5T global trade finance gap that disproportionately impacts small-and medium-sized (SME) businesses. Marco supports SMEs based in Latin America, where a $350 billion trade finance gap blocks many exporters from participating in the US market. The funding includes an equity round, led by Antler and Struck Capital, and a credit facility underwritten by Arcadia Funds, LLC.

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When it comes to choosing investors, it depends on the stage of growth you are in, and on how much you want to raise. Find out what are the key considerations and benefits of reaching out to each type of investor.

This article is a 4th part of the "Startup fundraising 101" series - a  resource that has been created in order to help all founders in their fundraising journey. To learn more, read our previous pieces which are linked at the end of this article.

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In this episode, we speak to Hande Cilingir, co-founder and CEO of Insider, an integrated growth management platform that is changing the game for e-commerce businesses globally. Backed by investors such as Riverwood Capital, Sequoia, Wamda and Endeavor Catalyst, Insider is helping over 800 global brands drive their digital growth through highly individualized multichannel experiences powered by AI.

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We are delighted to be collaborating with Truecaller — one of the fastest-growing communications apps impacting the world, in a bid to strengthen our commitment to support our startup founders with their journey as entrepreneurs.

Sehreen NoorAli, an accomplished former education technology executive and  diplomat, joined Antler in September 2019 determined to improve medical care  navigability for parents raising young children with health conditions.  Sehreen was intimately familiar with the industry's shortcomings and its  lack of technological infrastructure. "As a parent, you're in the  driver's seat of your child's health," Sehreen explains. "There's a  moment you realize that you only see a pediatrician every so often.  Ultimately, a parent is in charge of a child's healthcare journey. This was  a pain point I felt acutely as my daughter was diagnosed with a condition that  required considerable therapies."

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It is no secret that industry leaders face challenges when it comes to fostering innovation and growth. Take a closer peek into how Antler Norway has managed to unlock mutual benefits - by innovating at speed and creating a culture of entrepreneurship with the support of top entrepreneurs from all around the world.

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If you are an entrepreneur looking for investment for your early-stage startup, you may wonder “What is my company worth?”. The answer to this question can be quite difficult to formulate. Most valuations are a negotiation; a balance of setting a price that is acceptable to the founders but also agreeable to the investors. There is no general rule of putting a price on a startup, however, we have some tips that will make your valuation process easier.

The founder series takes a deep dive into the journey of Antler portfolio company founders and sheds light on the space they are building in. This week, we spoke to Anna Ratala, Co-Founder & CEO of Zvook.

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In this episode, we speak to Eilert Hanoa, the CEO of Kahoot!, the game-based learning platform that has taken the world by storm. As Norway's first and only unicorn, the company aims to make education more effective and accessible Globally. With the current remote learning and working situation, Kahoot!'s user base has been boosted to more than one billion active players annually.